Unfailingly polite, calm and measured, Rishi Sunak cast aside his usual demeanour on Monday to reveal a rugged streak that may yet allow him to turn a corner in his premiership.
One who usually avoids the knife-fighting of politics, the British Prime Minister made a withering remark about Boris Johnson’s demands in appointing his nominees to the House of Lords.
In the controversy surrounding the former prime minister’s resignation honours list, Mr Sunak boldly stated that Mr Johnson had asked him to “do something I wasn’t prepared to do … because I didn’t think it was right”.
Mr Johnson had apparently demanded that Mr Sunak overrule the House of Lords Appointments Commission committee or to make promises for future peerages.
It was, it appeared, the moment Mr Sunak’s remaining goodwill evaporated.
“I didn’t think it was right and if people don’t like that, then tough,” he said, winning applause from many Tory MPs for slapping down the man who has had the Conservative Party in a noose for almost a decade.
And now Mr Johnson has been left hanging by the parliament he brazenly lied to.
If in a year’s time Rishi Sunak manages to narrow Labour’s lead in the polls, the past week might be seen as the moment he showed his mettle.
Banished ghost
Mr Sunak was once Mr Johnson’s trusted chancellor but their alliance was irretrievably lost after his resignation a year ago precipitated Mr Johnson’s Downing Street exit.
With the ghost of Boris Johnson now firmly exorcised this could be the moment for Mr Sunak, 43, to assert his leadership unencumbered by a sniping predecessor.
“It's a seminal moment because Boris has been on his tail the whole time Rishi’s been Prime Minister,” said Dr Alan Mendoza, director of the Henry Jackson think tank. “There's clearly no love lost between them, so this is a circumstance that has broken for Rishi because it has led to a definitive end to the Boris Johnson period, to him being a ghost in the House of Commons.”
Pragmatic Rishi
With the shade of Mr Johnson banished, his successor will hope to find the necessary strength to restore Britain’s economy and invigorate its politically fatigued voters.
The Tories are trailing in the polls by a significant 16 per cent to 20 per cent and to date Mr Sunak’s sensible policies and grasp of detail have yet to claw back ground.
He is also seen as a pragmatist and as one senior Tory party figure suggested: “I think he's certainly shown grit, but it is also now advantageous for him to do that.”
The source decried his lack of grit when dealing with the hardline Home Secretary Suella Braverman or keeping right-wing factions under control. “I think it's been pragmatic for him to be gritty, he's responding to circumstance rather than leading it."
Another Conservative politician declared that “Rishi’s tough talk” was the “kind of language that resonates well with Tory MPs and certain types of Tory supporter”.
To appeal to voters she suggested that Mr Sunak now had to wrap himself in the British Union Jack, be firm and fair then make “Boris look like a whingeing little boy”.
That turning point could well have been reached this week, Dr Mendoza said.
“That resilience and inner steel might emerge as Mr Sunak has definitively stated that I am the person who's best equipped to lead this country as prime minister and actually doing it rather than saying I’m doing it,” he said.
“I think people will recognise that as an adult in the room he is prioritising what needs to be prioritised. His answer will simply be to just keep on watching what I do, not the noise around me.”
Triple jeopardy
Mr Sunak’s newfound ruggedness will certainly be tested and much sooner than he would have liked with the three by-elections precipitated by Mr Johnson’s resignation along with two of his MP acolytes, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams.
There are grounds to suspect that Mr Johnson’s flouncing out of the Commons came about because he knew that he would be found guilty of misleading parliament, leading to a recall vote by-election for his Uxbridge and Ruislip seat.
With a 7,000 majority, that would not be a vote he would win, according to Savanta’s polling specialist Chris Hopkins, even with the factored-in benefit of “incumbency” for a sitting MP.
“But for Boris whether incumbency would have been a positive or negative is hard to say,” he said. “However, I think it would be a huge shock if Labour didn't manage to make a gain there.”
That looks likely too for Mr Adams’s Selby and Ainsty 13,000 majority seat in North Yorkshire and possibly even Ms Dorries’ seat of Mid Bedfordshire with its huge 24,000 majority, although the Lib Dems could split the anti-Tory vote.
In the immediate term, a loss of two or three seats would look bad and not necessarily suggest Mr Sunak can win a general election.
“At the same time, there is the theory that there’s plenty of time before the general election, for things to change,” Mr Hopkin said. “If the economy picks up and winter isn't too bad then the polls nationally could narrow. Mr Sunak has to show that he wants to be his own man, his own prime minister, and try to convince voters that he is different from Johnson.”
Return of the King
No doubt Mr Johnson will take heart from Savanta’s snap poll on Thursday that showed while almost half believed his political career is over, 40 per cent said it was not.
Mr Sunak may well use this moment to take on the mantle of a strong leader, although what is certain is that Mr Johnson is unlikely to go quietly.
“You can never say never with Boris,” said the senior Tory source. “He has the persistence of a madman.”
Dr Mendoza agreed. “Of course, this doesn't mean it's the end of a career in politics for Boris. But the priority is not the Boris Johnson show now, the priority is running the country and that is what Rishi’s shown us in the last week.”
